


On Thin Ice

by saichan



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, summon spirit!Jade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29272725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saichan/pseuds/saichan
Summary: The Balfour Children were infamous in Keterberg’s lore. Peony wanted to meet them. Saphir just wanted to go home.
Relationships: Dist the Reaper & Peony Upala Malkuth IX, Jade Curtiss & Nephry Osborne
Kudos: 3





	On Thin Ice

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while back, found it in my drafts, polished it a little, and... Here you go.

Peony halted his trudging to scowl at the sky, his mortal enemy at that moment. He hated the snow; it made him colder than he already was, and the flakes always found their ways beneath his coat, or melted annoyingly on his numb face, only to freeze again moments later.

It was an odd thought to cross the mind of a resident of Keterburg, the northernmost settlement in Auldrant.

The sky had been clear, just a few minutes ago. It wasn't particularly windy, either, so how could the clouds have blown up in the time it took him to fetch Saphir?

"See, it's snowing now," whined the albino in question, a few steps behind his friend. "The Professor said it would."

"You're scared of a few flakes?" the blond said, exaggerating a drawl, and ignored that the Professor had, once again, been eerily correct. "What're they gonna do, make your nose run?"

Saphir didn't respond, but he continued to mumble his complaints. After a while, Peony grew annoyed with the background noise following him. It was enough to make the Prince wish he had simply gone alone.

"If it bothers you that much, go home!" he snapped finally – unusually, but the snow made him bad-tempered.

"You made me come!" 

"I asked." Peony checked his lodestone with an air of superiority as the unlikely duo left the city boundaries. Despite their arguing, both knew Saphir, like Peony, was too curious about the legendary Balfour Children to let the opportunity pass.

"So," Saphir began tentatively as he caught up, panting slightly, "where do we look?"

"Dunno. Professor Nebilim said they led people all over."

"Caves," they said together, spying a grey-blue hulk of rock in the distance.

Peony checked his lodestone again, a gift from the Professor before they left.

"We're going north-nor'west," he said, nodding decisively.

Saphir muttered something along the lines of, "Southerners speak so weird."

The blond couldn't be bothered to snap back, plotting to shove his friend into the next snowdrift they passed instead. It wouldn’t be too hard, Saphir was spindly enough that Peony sometimes worried that he might accidentally snap one of his limbs.

Most of the adults in the city could never understand why they were friends. Sometimes, Peony felt much the same: Saphir was Keterburg's child prodigy – slightly eccentric, averse to physical exercise, but sweet nonetheless, he was well-liked by all. By comparison, Peony was the complete opposite, enjoying rough-and-tumble games, and having no patience for the studies and complicated theories the albino found so fascinating.

Professor Nebilim had commented that it was probably better not to question Lorelei's will. Life was so much simpler by accepting it as it was.

Well, he had no objections, the Prince reflected, laughing as he fled from the snowdrift, Saphir's high-pitched threats and curses following him.

* * *

The Balfour Children were revered purely out of fear by the Keterburg natives. Foreigners invariably scoffed at the stories they were told, dismissing the folk to be ridiculously superstitious. The foolhardier of them rarely returned from their explorations, and the few who did were seldom sane.

The younger child, Nephry as she was sometimes called, was kinder by far than her elder brother, if perhaps a little naive. She often led lost travellers in snowstorms to safety, but only under conditions she never told – indeed, no-one had ever heard of her speaking.

Jade, her brother, was invariably the more dangerous one. Once he appeared before mortals, they were never again seen – on occasion, a body was discovered in the milder spring months. He was well-known for his sadistic streak: what many forgot, beguiled by the guise of an eleven-year-old child, was that they were in the presence of an immortal ice spirit.

It was perhaps understandable that Nephry was known as the spirit of snow since, for all its dangers, snow was easier to survive than ice.

Saphir surely knew better than to risk either danger, Gelda Nebilim thought. She had to wonder exactly how Peony had managed to convince her more superstitious student out. Probably with the promise of scientific study, she decided at length with a chuckle, finally abandoning her book. Her eyes hadn't moved far past the fourth sentence.

The Balfour Children, Gelda thought, looking at the gathering clouds, were used as an explanation of bad luck: children disappeared in the night, taken by them from their harried parents because they hadn't been "good"; snowstorms because they felt – not unappreciated, Gelda thought amusedly, what was the word she was looking for? – anything unexpected or inexplicable was put down to the Children's displeasure.

Jade, she was sure, wouldn't those notions in the least.

"Professor, there will be a snowstorm soon. Your... Peony and Saphir haven't returned yet."

"I'm sure Nephrite will play with them awhile. Peony, at least." The Professor stood, ruffling the hair of the boy, knowing he hated it. "Jade would quite like Saphir, I think."

"Do you know them well?"

Gelda paused as if sensing danger. "Oh, it's just my harmless fancies. You know me."

The boy rolled his eyes as she made no move to go elsewhere. Instead, he excused himself, turning to leave as quietly as he'd come.

* * *

Nephry tilted her head curiously, watching the two boys struggle through the strong winds and deepening snow.

"Please, big brother?" she pleaded. It had been a long time since Jade had let her play. "They're nice, I can tell."

Beside her, the sandy-haired boy nodded curtly, but with some resignation.

"Lead them to our cave," he said. "I'm curious, myself."

Nephry cheered, hugging her brother before she vanished in a flurry of snow to the two boys' sides.

She dashed ahead of them, paused, and turned to watch them, smiling reassuringly as they stared dazedly. Nephry turned away again, striding easily through the snowdrifts towards the cave Jade had mentioned, the deepest in the nearby rock-face.

Her gaze slid back multiple times to check they were still following – yes, the skinnier one was muttering furiously into the other's ear as they leaned together in an attempt to stay upright.

The girl wanted to help them, but her brother wouldn't approve: one of his rules was that she would never be touched; another was that she could never speak in front of mortals. Hence why she couldn't squeal with joy at finally having new playmates, no matter how briefly.

Sometimes her brother was so strange.

Nephry spun around, eager to play, as soon as she deemed them far enough into the cave.

"Not so fast, Nephry." Jade materialised at her side again, expression reproving as his crimson eyes searched the two boys slumped on what appeared to be exhaustion.

"Up!" he snapped, Nephry watching in amazement as they leapt to obey. "Do you not know anything? Sleep will lull you into death's open arms – move yourselves!"

He looked at his sister. "Occupy them. You know the rules."

The blond boy blinked in shock as Jade vanished.

"He- He turned into ice!" He rounded on the albino. "Saphir, you saw that, right?"

Saphir – Nephry noted the name with interest – seemed to inflate with some emotion.

"So, you are—"

Nephry decided that, if they were just going to ask questions, she wasn't going to answer until one or the other caught her.

The blond one – Nephry still didn't know his name, but it wasn't as if she could ask, really – immediately chased after her, the albino puffing along slowly behind. It didn't surprise her that he stopped when her brother returned with a sharp snap of ice.

"Don't touch her," Saphir said tiredly, causing Nephry to stop in shock.

Jade was, as usual, perfectly calm about this turn of events. He simply continued to build a fire with the wood he had somehow gained, probably from an unfortunate household in the human city.

"Whatever gave you that notion?"

"You're-" Saphir hesitated briefly, before ploughing on. "You're both fonic sentiences of Ice, what we call the Balfour Children, so it only stands to reason that we can't touch you without being frozen."

"Without our permission," Jade corrected. He rarely corrected people he spoke to, so Nephry knew he was, on some level, impressed by Saphir's quick reasoning.

The blond boy slowed to a stop in his approach to the fire Jade was building.

"Yes, Nephry, as well." Jade's voice had taken on a dangerous edge, stressing his sister's name.

Under the harsh crimson gaze, the blond squirmed, knowing this was a boundary not to cross.

"Ah, well, then, Your, um, Iceship, pleased to meet you. And you, miss. My name is Peony." Finally, she knew the blond boy's name. Behind Peony, Saphir twisted his face in distaste.

"I thought as much. Your Highness." Jade gave an exaggerated bow. Nephry looked at her brother in confused admiration. He really did know everything.

His eyes flicked to hers. "Entertain your guests, dear sister." Jade made a shooing gesture with a hand, retreating, oddly – or not—to the entrance to the cave.

Nephry needed no further encouragement. She grabbed Peony's gloved hand, remembering not to accidentally freeze him, dragging him further into the maze of tunnels only she knew.

Saphir wondered if he would ever see his friend again. How would he explain the missing prince to his royal father?

Smirking at the albino's expression, Jade settled into a sitting position while he waited for Saphir to light the fire.

From the boy's rate of progress, fumbling at the matches – why was he carrying matches, Jade wondered? – he could be waiting a while.

A sentience of ice would never touch anything with a flame, after all.

"Well, I suppose it would work well enough, something that would never melt. It'd be like when we keep the meat in the outhouse when the snowdrifts start..."

Jade's ears perked up. What was Saphir muttering about now?

"Would it be enough to have a source of forth fonons? Or would it need a source of third fonons too? And of course, it would need to be stored in something..."

"Something similar existed in the Dawn Age. A refrigerator, I believe it was called."

Saphir's eyes lit up, and he stopped fumbling around with his matches. "Really?"

Jade stifled a sigh. Once you offered some people a crumb, they wanted it all. "I don't believe any schematics have survived the intervening years."

"Well, I'll make my own!" Saphir began striking the matches again with renewed determination.

Jade debated whether or not to point out that to make fontech that would replace a primary function of a fonic sentience or fonist, the sentience would need to agree. After all, it fell under a category of aggregate fonons. It would be more fun not to.

Eventually, a flame reared up, and Saphir sighed in relief that quickly became muted cursing as pins and needles assaulted his extremities.

Humans gave the strangest names to the simplest occurrences, Jade thought, eyeing the fire speculatively.

"Nephry is fond of her snow sculptures in these caves," he said at length; content as he was to let the silence continue, the boy who he was watching out the corner of his eye was growing restless and increasingly nervous.

Saphir's pale eyes snapped to Jade's. "Snow sculptures?" He held the sentience's gaze a moment longer than necessary, almost as if proving he could before settling.

"You trust that?" Saphir had, again, surprised him. Most disregarded him as while perhaps not lying, as untrustworthy. Things quickly grew messy after that.

"Why lie?" Saphir asked. "Ice doesn't hide its nature."

Jade blinked, but otherwise, his expression remained calm. Yes, Saphir was certainly an interesting mortal.

He reached up, summoning fonons to his hand without conscious effort. "Hand out, he ordered, finally standing to approach the fire.

A moment later, a small ice figurine fell into Saphir's hand. The albino stared at it before some thought floated into his mind, and he moved it away from the merrily crackling flames.

"It won't melt," Jade said scornfully. "Not unless I will it to."

Saphir gave him an odd look, but held it towards the fire to examine it better in the light. Jade very nearly made it melt purely to see his reaction, but Nephry's return distracted him.

"Can we go play in the snow now?" she asked, still holding the Prince's hand, Jade noted.

"Perhaps later." He didn't miss the relieved look on Saphir's face. Perhaps he was the victim of one-too-many snowdrifts, he thought in amusement. "I think your friends need to rest before returning home."

He didn't add a "for now". The sentience had no doubt he'd see the duo again, willingly or not.

* * *

Gelda shivered slightly as she entered the familiar cave, but she smiled nonetheless when she saw two equally familiar boys curled up in sleep near the fire. So that was why her firewood had disappeared.

"My, Jade," she said, impressed. "You listened."

"There would be quite the uproar, should the Crown Prince vanish or die. Far more interesting, however."

Typical Jade, Gelda thought, in an odd mix of amusement and resignation.

"Professor!" cheered Nephry, hugging the lady as she approached.

"Hello, Nephry," Gelda greeted the girl, looking over her head at Jade. "Well then; was I right?"


End file.
